Jay Manuel is revealing where he stands with Tyra Banks today after their fallout on America’s Next Top Model.
Manuel, 53, shared in an interview with People published on Monday, February 16, that he last saw Banks, 52, in 2017 — five years after he left the show alongside fellow panelists Miss J Alexander and Nigel Barker. Manuel recalled that he and Banks had a “really nice conversation” at BeautyCon.
“Other than that, we’ve had no communication of any sort, text, email, anything,” he said. “Tyra and I were close, and when we were in New York shooting, or even in L.A. shooting, she’d be at my house or I’d be at her house, and we would really download. But at the same time, and she knows this to be true, the things that are those really, really trusted important things that she has said to me, I will never repeat. I will forever honor my relationship with her in the past.”
Manuel noted that he’s still “very open” to talking to Banks if she has interest, adding, “I’m in a healed place. I wish her no ill will.”
Manuel and Banks’ friendship rift is addressed in Netflix’s Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. Manuel joined America’s Next Top Model — the show that followed aspiring models competing for the title which aired from 2003 to 2018 — in its first cycle in 2003 as the Creative Director. Banks, meanwhile, appeared on the show as a host.
In the three-part Netflix special, Manuel recalled his realization that he needed to step back from the show after season 8. He broke the news to Banks via email, who replied, “I am disappointed.” Manuel alleged that “all communication just stopped,” and he felt pressure to come back to the show for another season.
Manuel — along with Barker and Miss J. Alexander — didn’t return after his contract wasn’t renewed for season 19. He claimed that his and Banks’ issues were intensified when the news of his firing became public.
“We were going to put out one joint press release, and they said we would all get a quote in this press release,” he recalled. “We see it all the time in television shows, people saying, ‘So and so and so and so have decided to part ways.’ And Tyra, she’s like, ‘We’ll put out in our press release how we’re going to continue to work together.’ So we agreed to that.”
While Netflix’s America’s Next Top Model docuseries reexamined Shandi Sullivan‘s onscreen sexual assault — including what had to be cut out from the final edit — executive producer Tyra Banks refused to discuss the incident. During the three-part special, released on Monday, February 16, Sullivan recalled nearly winning season 2 before a group trip to […]
After the group felt like they couldn’t “move forward in their career with grace,” Manuel, Miss J Alexander and Barker appeared in an interview addressing the firing, where they were asked if they felt “blindsided” by the decision.
“We had to speak very carefully, contractually at the time,” Manuel shared. “There are only certain things you could speak about around the production and what you legally could say.”
Banks, meanwhile, shared her perspective on Manuel’s departure.
“It was probably some of the hardest news I have ever had to deliver, in my existence,” she said. “I cried myself to sleep that night. You know? They were there from the beginning. They were some of the closest people to me in my life and I had to deliver that news that the deal is up and that it’s over. You can imagine what that feels like.”
She continued, “But bosses have bosses, and the big boss was very clear — there are no sacred cows. And I heard that meaning, ‘You too, Tyra. So pick up the phone and do what I’m telling you to do.’ And the thing is, I don’t believe that they knew that it came from above. No matter how much I was explaining, ‘This was not our decision.’ To this day, I think they think that it was me.”
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model is streaming on Netflix now.
